The Road to Providence

singer lady, who sat in Mother Mayberry's large arm-chair, swinging herself and Teether slowly to and fro, humming happily little vagrant airs that floated into her brain o

The heart-to-heart communions, which she and Eliza found opportunities to hold, were a constant source of pleasure to Miss Wingate,

as more'n glad to set in the back yard and smoke his pipe. Maw wouldn't put Teether to bed, but rocked him in her lap 'cause he might wake up and disturb 'em. She let me set up with her and Paw

dor that would have been vouched no other soul

in to the City and he got the letter from Miss Alford day before yesterday-that is, Aunt Prissy says Mr. Petway thinks it was from her-I reckon it won't be fair to get him for you, when she had him first

avity and not a little perturbation in her voic

rose you dropped when you went in the store to get your letters the other day, and when Mr. Petway laughed he got red even in his ears. And just this week he have bought a pair of pink suspenders, some sweet grease for his hair and green striped socks. He'll look lovely when he gets fixed up and I hope you will notice him some." E

most mortals from their seventh to tenth month. A thin wraith of Miss Alford's personality had been drifting through the singer lady's consciousness for some days, but she was positively stunned at this sudden materialization. There come moments in the lives of most women when th

-giggling make music like a nest full of young cat-birds. Did you ever notice how 'most any down-heart will get up and go a-marching to a laugh tune? I needed just them

, as she moved a little closer, so Teether could reach out a

oks like, day by day, I can see Mis' Bostick slipping away from us, same as one of the white garden lil

ely warm days come to stay this summer, is she?" asked th

t since the news of Will's running off with that money came to Providence she have just been fading away. A mother's heart don't break clean over a child, but gets a

that it must be a joy to have him such a comfort to them," said Miss

m them. Now there's a picture that goes on the page with my remarks! Bettie sure do look pretty with that white sunbonnet on her head, and count how many Turners, Pratts, Hoovers and Pikes she have got trailing peacefully behind her, all like full-blood brothers and sisters. I'm so glad she's a-bringing her sewing to set a spell. Come

tie over to my house helping Clara May get a little weed-pulling outen 'Lias and Henny in my garden. Buck Peavey have just passed by looking like the last of pea-time and the first of frost. I do declare it were right down funny to se

n her placid face at the troubles of her favorite, Buck, the lover. "To some fol

sness of the singer lady and she pressed her head between little Hoover's chubby shoulders, and acknowledged herself a fit subject for

' Mayberry would lend her head to help fitting notions to what can be did. Mr. Hoover's clover hay will be laid by next week and he says they ain't nothing more to keep us back. I've sewed up four bolts of light caliker, two of domestic, one of blu

ed Miss Wingate, roused out of her woe by the very

we'll drop the little ones here on you neighbors and pick up the seven big ones, add Buck for a compliment and go on down to the City for two days' high jinks. We're going to take 'em up to the capitol and over the new bridge and we hope to strike some kind of band music going on somewhere for 'em to hear. We want a photygraft group of us all, too. We are going to put up at the

uldn't trust Tom to go to town now without coming back pop-eyed over the ottermobiles," and Mother Mayberry laughed at her own fling at the sophisticated young Doctor. Another dart of agony entered the soul of the singer lady and this time the vision of the

all these squeems. Why, Mis' Mayberry, how on earth are we a-going to parade all the seventeen into the Meeting-house without getting the whole congregation into a regular giggle? I don't

ry laugh at the plight of the embarrassed widower. "Looks like when we all can trust Mr. Hoover to be so good and kind to you and your children, after

lage in a double line along the path to the church, each with baskets of flowers from which they threw posies in front of the bride as she came by them! Let's get all the children together and mix them up and let them stand along the walk to the church door. It will just make a beautiful picture with no-no thought of-of who belongs to an

rother is coming over from Bolivar to the wedding, and as he is a-going to be a kinder

little girls ought to have white dresses and the boys-well, what could the little boys wear?" Miss Wingate felt reasonably sure that wh

f boys is another thing," answered Mother Mayberry. "If just blue jeans britches could be made to d

cut and somebody to baste, and I will get 'em all turned out by sundown. But they feet! Mis' Mayberry,

-going to put it through so as to be a credit to you. Children are sorter going out of style these days and I'm proud to make a show of our'n. Women's

the truck about what women have took a notion to turn out and do in the world, I get ri

lags, that they are a-contending for, they'll always be some foolish enough to lag behind with babies on they breasts, a string of children following and with always a snack in her pocket to feed

er lady plaintively, for she had very lately, for the first time in her life, felt t

eze, and stretched him across her lap for a nap. "But as long as she have got the spanking of man sprouts from they one to ten y

her husband," hazarded t

s a woman's borned-vote, and she can elect herself wife to any man she cares to use 'em on. But what about the collatio

ut right. We'll begin thinking about that and deciding what the first of the week. But I must be a-going to see that the dinner horn blows in time. I want to get my sparagrasses extra tender, for 'Liza have notified me that she is going to stop by to-day with the covered dish, and I w

at poking up a woman's curiosity is mighty apt to start a yaller jack

are one of them kind, and she'll tie up with 'em all in glory when the time comes," remarked Mother Ma

e of the small fry, which lay pitifully cheeping on the back steps. Dominick, with every feather awry, was holding command of the bowl of corn-meal while her family feasted, and the Plymouth rooster stood at a respectfu

s return was not mentioned by his mother, and for the life of her Miss Wingate could not muster the courage for a single question. She felt utterly unable to stand even the most mild eulogy on the peony-girl and was glad that nothing occurred to turn the conversation in that direction. She was silent for the most part, and most assiduous

ps and watched Mother Mayberry depart in her old buggy on the way to visit a patient over the Nob. A long, lonely afternoon was more th

e formula that he had found to be a perfectly good open sesame to mos

able hour of one-thirty. She was just passing by Mrs. Peavey's gate with no earthly thought of going in when she beheld the disconsolate Buck stretched full length on the grass u

re down in town that burned up two firemen, a police and a woman?" At the sound of his mother's

back as she prepared to hasten on for fear Mrs. Peavey would come to

arry across the distance to Mrs. Pike's front door, through which Miss Wingate was disappearing. Her prompt flight had save

inage that her sister-in-law directed at her on the subject of Mr. Petway, and after a while Miss Wingate went on her way, in a manner comforted by their wholesome merriment. She hesitated at the front gate of the Tutt

on't wanter get a numbskull. Told me to eat a passel of raw green stuff for my liver, like I was a head of cattle. I'll die if I follow him. Everybody he doc

tick's bed with his Bible across his thin old knees, and Eliza was crouched on the floor just in front of him, with her knees in her embrace and her eyes fixed on his gentle face. Little Bettie Pratt lay across Mrs. Bostick's bed, deep in her afternoon nap, and Henny Turner was stretched out full length on the floor in f

e piece of rock in the gum-sling!" exclaimed 'Lias in excitement over the cl

ntative tone of voice. "Do you reckon He tooken the strength away from David the next morning, Deacon, or let him

for hours drinking in tales of Miss Wingate's travels in the world, which she had timidly but eagerly asked for from the beginning of their friendship. The girl knew that the anxious mother-heart vas using her descriptions to fare forth on quests for the wanderer into the wide world beyond the Harpeth Hills, that had all her life bounded her horizon, and she sat by her long hours, leading the way into the uttermost parts. After a fatherly greeting, the Deacon departed w

you and my young mission boy both gone I'm like an old hawk-robbed hen. I knew you was with Mis' Bostick, and I didn't come for you 'cause somehow them rocking-chair-bed travels you and her t

" demanded the singer lady, with a queer thump in

forgot to tie a yarn string around before I went to bed, so I had to let Tom hurry on over there 'count of the push they was in. Then I got to studying it over and while I knewed how Tom had had a lot of practice in such things in a hospital, I thought it was just as well to let him get a little Harpeth experience along that line and sorter prove his character to Squire Tutt and the rest. About dinner time, though, I got sorry for him and hitched up and went over there to see how they was a-gett

and leaned her head against the convenient post. "It was awful-I-I-" she

what he is up to. A trouble-hunting wife is a rock sinker to any man, but around a doctor's neck she'll finish him quick. Don't let on to the shame-faced thing when he comes! He asked me what you'd been a-doing all day, and I told him I thought maybe you had a few custards in your mind for him to-ni